Hello everyone, unfortunately im here to ask for advice and tech support!
ill be brief at first with the problem at hand and then Ill explain how it happened
Part 1: the burnt integrated circuit
1. On the first attached image theres an integrated circuit that burned, it even smelled, in fact 2 of the numbers/letters in the chip visually melted so I cant look up the chips name.
2. The chip is very near to the power switch and and the output stage is close by as well.
Whats the result?
THE AMP IS WORKING, I checked than nothing else had burned or shorted other than this part, the result is:
-The power button switch does nothing at all, the power stays on if the amp is connected.
-Every single output except 1 including the preamp line out has hiss noise on the left channel, the hiss stays the same volume regardless of moving the amps volume pots.
If you ignore the hiss the amplifier sounds just like it should, and so does the line out.
-There is 1 single headphone out that is unnafected by the hiss and works exactly as intended, the uppermost/leftmost 6.35mm output works like nothing happened
-Tubes have already been replaced with spare matching tubes with tje exact same result.
If anyone could provide the name of the burnt integrated chip so I can maybe look for it that would be nice.
Im Also contacting Audio Technica to see if they can sell me the integrated I need, but im afraid they might ask for the whole amp to be sent instead which is problematic because im currently in MX and taking the amp there is quite extra effort and money
Im the first owner, I imported the amp from japan in 2022
I was trying psvane 12ax7 matched pairs, they sound great, I used them for at least a month.
It was mint condition until very recently I was trying to unscrew a rough torx and accidentally hit the power button very hard on the inside and It got misaligned, so It would not stay on snucked in (powered on) until i put it back together.
Part 2: Day of the failure
1. I listened to music for about 3 hours
2. Suddenly theres an annoying hiss on the left channel of every output, and I started checking the outputs, cables, hps. The hiss is really hard to hear on high impendence hps but still there.
3. 1 hour later while still checking my gear I smelled a slight burn coming from the amplifier but regardless it kept working just like before, with the same hiss.
4. After the burn, the power button stopped working, the amp stays turned on regardless of the power button's position, the amp has to be unplugged to turn it off.
